How Varon Strengthens Global Social Responsibility Through Support for FOSSVI’s Respiratory Care Initiatives

FOSSVI, the St Vincent Social Works Foundation, serves older people and the most marginalized families who are often invisible in mainstream health systems. Its mission is to improve physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing so that people in poverty can live a dignified life, not simply survive. Varon’s charity partnership steps into this mission by placing a high quality home oxygen concentrator directly where it is needed most: at the bedside of sisters and elderly residents who struggle to breathe.

Through this collaboration, residents at San Vicente Home and Santa Luisa Annex now receive home oxygen support using the Varon Serene 5, a medical grade oxygen concentrator designed for safe, continuous indoor use. The charity partnership means these residents do not just receive a machine; they gain a stable source of relief that supports sleep, reduces night time breathlessness, and adds comfort to their daily routine. For nuns who have spent a lifetime serving the poorest, this is a quiet but powerful recognition of their own needs and dignity.

VARON Serene 5L Oxygen Concentrator |72H Operation FDA

Home treatment with a Varon machine

Receiving treatment at home with a Varon machine can be one of the most comfortable ways to manage long term respiratory conditions such as asthma, COPD, pneumonia, bronchitis, lung cancer, flu, and sleep apnoea when prescribed as part of a clinical care plan. UK and international guidance recognises that home oxygen therapy, delivered through an oxygen concentrator, can support people with chronic lung disease whose blood oxygen levels remain low despite standard treatment. For older adults and frail residents, this avoids frequent travel to hospital and allows care in the familiar environment of their own room.

The Varon Serene 5 is built for this type of daily, home based support.It sends out a steady stream of oxygen, around 93 percent give or take a little, even when the flow is turned up or down between 0.5 and 5 litres a minute, so the doctor can change the setting for each person while the oxygen quality stays stable.

 Its design supports 24/7 use with low noise, so residents can breathe more easily during the night without the stress of a loud motor disturbing their sleep. For FOSSVI’s sisters and elderly residents, this translates into fewer nights of gasping, more peaceful rest, and greater confidence that help is always available beside the bed.

Comfort when masks feel suffocating

Most people feel hot and short of breath when wearing surgical or filtering masks for long periods, especially during influenza outbreaks or in crowded spaces. For people living with COPD or other long term lung problems, this kind of discomfort can feel really strong because their breathing is already harder than normal and any extra pressure makes every breath feel like hard work. Many start to fear that tight feeling in the chest, and this fear can grow into anxiety that makes them avoid simple daily things, like walking down the corridor, going to chapel, or joining small group activities with others.

Home based oxygen therapy offers a different kind of comfort. With a quiet, stationary machine such as the Varon Serene 5 in the room, residents can sit or rest without wearing a mask for long hours, instead using a soft nasal cannula that delivers extra oxygen with much less sensation of stuffiness. The low noise level, below about normal conversation, helps keep the atmosphere calm, while the integrated humidification bottle can reduce dryness in the nose and throat. For FOSSVI’s communities, this balance of safety, comfort, and dignity is central: people feel protected against respiratory illness without the constant reminder and discomfort of tight masks on the face.

Why the Varon Serene 5 stands out

The Varon Serene 5 sits at the top of Varon’s home range because it brings strong, medical grade oxygen therapy into a machine that feels simple to live with day to day. It is not just powerful, it is also quiet, easy to move around the room, and straightforward enough that carers and older users do not feel scared to touch the controls.

In busy charity homes like FOSSVI’s, where staff are already doing many tasks and residents may worry about breaking things, this really matters. The Serene 5 gives them steady, high purity oxygen and a clear screen without feeling like a big hospital machine, so it fits better into normal life and makes treatment feel less stressful for everyone.

Key strengths include

• High purity, steady flow: The machine gives a strong, steady stream of oxygen, around 93 percent plus or minus a little, across the whole 0.5 to 5 litres per minute range. It can be set low for someone who only gets breathless on light effort, or higher for people with more serious long term lung disease.
• Two in one: oxygen and nebuliser: It also works as a built in nebuliser, so patients can take inhaled medicines without needing a second device on the table. This makes life easier for anyone managing asthma or COPD at home under their doctor’s guidance, because there is less equipment to set up and store.
• Quiet enough for bedside use: The sound level stays under roughly 43 dB, which is fairly quiet in a bedroom. Most people can keep it running next to the bed through the night, or in a shared room, without the machine becoming the main noise in the space.
• Simple smart panel:The front screen is large and easy to read, with clear buttons and a timer that can be set from short sessions up to many hours. Warning lights and beeps step in if there is a power problem, pressure issue, or heat build up, so carers do not need to guess what is wrong.
• Easy to move around: Because it sits on four small wheels, staff can roll the unit from one room to another or shift it across the floor without lifting its full weight. This really helps when looking after frail residents who cannot walk far and need the machine close by.

These features are not just tech details on a leaflet. Day to day they mean FOSSVI staff can spend more time talking, listening, and offering spiritual support, and less time fighting with awkward equipment. For the sisters and residents, the unit fades into the background like a quiet helper in the corner, always there but not in the way, which makes it easier to stick with treatment and feel that overall quality of life has gone up, not down.

Warranty, quality, and daily upkeep

For a charity partnership to really last, the device has to cope with daily use and have good backup when something goes wrong. Varon backs the Serene 5 with clear warranty cover and ongoing help, so partners like FOSSVI know they are not alone if there is a fault and that repair or replacement will not fall fully on a tight budget. This kind of long term promise turns what could be a one off gift into a long running breathing support service inside the home.

Everyday care of the unit is simple and fits easily into the normal routine. Staff can wipe the outside to keep the vents clear, rinse or change the nasal tubes on a regular pattern, and give the filters a clean about once a month so air flow and performance stay stable. These small bits of upkeep are what keep the oxygen concentrator working safely for the residents who really cannot afford a sudden breakdown or a long gap in their oxygen supply.

FOSSVI, nuns, and a shared mission of care

FOSSVI’s mission is much wider than just medicine, reaching into emotional and spiritual support so the whole person is cared for. Many of the sisters and residents have spent most of their lives serving people in deep poverty, often putting their own health to one side. In that light, Varon’s gift of oxygen concentrators is not only a technical fix, it is also a gentle way of saying that those who care for others also deserve comfort, proper rest, and relief from pain.

Stories from the homes show how these machines bring real “relief, hope and joy” by easing each breath, helping people sleep better, and cutting down the fear that comes with night time breathing attacks. Residents now feel they can breathe more freely, lie down with less worry, and sense that a global company has chosen to stand right next to them through a charity partnership built on respect. This is what social responsibility looks like on the ground: it starts with easier breathing and ends with more strength for prayer, community, and quiet everyday life.

FAQs: Varon, FOSSVI, and home oxygen care

What is FOSSVI?
FOSSVI is the St Vincent Social Works Foundation. It looks after some of the most marginalised people, like elderly residents and religious sisters, helping their body, mind and spirit so they can live with more dignity.

How does Varon support FOSSVI?
Varon helps FOSSVI through a charity partnership. They donate reliable home oxygen concentrators so residents with bad breathing problems can get safer care right where they live, not always in hospital.

Who benefits from the donated oxygen concentrators?
Most of the time, the ones who benefit are older residents and nuns in places like San Vicente Home and Santa Luisa Annex. Many of them have COPD, asthma or other long term lung issues and really feel the difference when they can breathe easier.

Why is home oxygen therapy important?
Home oxygen therapy can ease breathlessness and help people sleep better. It may also mean fewer emergency trips to hospital when it is prescribed and checked by health professionals.

What makes the Varon Serene 5 good for this setting?
The Varon Serene 5 gives steady, high purity oxygen and runs very quietly. It has a simple screen and wheels, so it is easier to move and use for older or frail users and the staff who care for them.

VARON Serene 5L Oxygen Concentrator |72H Operation FDA